Gram Vikas, Award Winning Indian Social Development Organization, To Manage Its Water and Sanitation Projects Through Blue Planet Network
Mohuda, Orissa, India
February 24, 2009
Gram Vikas
announced today that it would put all its earlier water and sanitation
projects onto Blue Planet Network's Peer Water Exchange and use the platform for all its
future projects.
Based in Orissa, India, Gram Vikas is one of India's most
pioneering NGO's focused on social development. Since 1979, it has been
working to help people, especially tribals, in one of India's poorest
states. Gram Vikas started working on water and sanitation in 1992 and
has over 500 projects dotting a huge map on the wall in its office. It
has a unique approach: 100% sanitation coverage has to be included in
any water project. And with about 500 staff members who spend nearly
70% of their time in the field, it is able to rigorously enforce its
ideas and document long-term success.
Gram Vikas has won numerous accolades for its work, including the
prestigious Kyoto Water Prize at the 2006 Mexico World Water Forum and
the Skoll Award.
Chitra Chaudhuri, who oversees the main office, is happy that
Blue Planet Network's PWX will showcase all of Gram Vikas' work. "Our scope is getting bigger
and often, even our staff, do not know what is happening in other areas
from where they are working." She realizes its going to be a challenge
to get data onto PWX, but its going to be really worth it to see it on
the PWX map and analyze it in to see results in different ways, "PWX
offers Gram Vikas the ability to closely manage our projects and
streamline our communications so that our people can learn faster, make
smarter decisions, and be more efficient. I believe this system will
help guide and document our work of reaching our goal of providing
100,000 households with water and sanitation." She adds, "We love how
our reports to a single donor will also be seen by the rest of the
world."
Joe Madiath spends nearly half his time on the road sharing
his work with international agencies and promoting Gram Vikas' approach
in other states and countries. We have always been about sharing our
approach and results and now Blue Planet Network and its PWX allows our work to be 100%
transparent. " Madiath is fully committed to
PWX and the concept of peer review, "My strong hope is that other
organizations see the potential of PWX to shine a light on what is
working in the water sector and put all their projects on this platform
so that we all can do a better job while getting a fuller picture of
the water sector and what is working long-term."
Rajesh Shah, Blue Planet Network's Head of PWX, agrees, "We are most happy to support the
great work of Gram Vikas and showcase it to the world. I hope that,
after getting 16 years of Gram Vikas' work onto PWX, others, especially
the donor community, will follow their example. The water sector needs
a single repository, a clearinghouse so that everyone can see our
progress in fighting this global crisis."
NY Times:
Katie Spotz completed her mission Sunday, becoming the youngest person
to row an entire ocean solo, and the first American to row a boat
without help from mainland to mainland. After 70 days 5 hours 22 minutes
in the Atlantic, Spotz, 22, arrived Sunday in Georgetown, Guyana, in
South America.
“You’re in a situation that you can’t escape, so you really have to dig
deep,” said Spotz, who left Jan. 3 from Dakar, Senegal, on the west
coast of Africa.
Her 2,817-mile journey raised more than $100,000 for the Blue Planet Run
Foundation, which finances drinking water projects around the
world.
Determined to make the entire crossing under her own power, Spotz kept
rowing to Georgetown, 400 miles to the northeast of her original destination, where currents are
milder.
“I’m just impressed by the way she’s got on and done it,” Sam Williams, her coach, said.
“She’s had such little drama. Most people would be scared out of their
minds.”
Spotz had packed enough food to last 110 days: half a million calories’
worth of mostly freeze-dried meals, granola and dried fruit. Her
crossing took much less time because she had help from the trade
currents, and was fortunate not to face any major weather or technical
problems.
Her 19-foot yellow wooden rowboat was broadsided by 20-foot waves as she
approached South America. It was a frightening ride, even though the
boat was built to withstand hurricanes and 50-foot waves, said Phil
Morrison, the British yacht builder who designed it.
Spotz said in a telephone interview after the trip, “I was worried the
boat might capsize.”
Early in the trip, Spotz broke the cable that allowed her to steer with
her foot as she rowed, forcing her to use a cumbersome hand steering
system. A day before landfall, Spotz smelled smoke. Her GPS tracker,
which she used to update her position on her blog, was on fire. Spotz
extinguished it. Her GPS device for navigation was not affected.
Most important, the boat’s solar panels, batteries, water desalination
machine and the iPod she used to play audio books on Zen meditation
remained functional.
“I wouldn’t go on a trip like this without all the safety gear and
technology I had,” Spotz said.
Even so, the voyage remained a grueling test of endurance. Spotz
developed painful calluses and rashes from rowing 8 to 10 hours a day.
Spotz could have cooled herself at night by opening the two hatches of
her watertight sleeping cabin, but doing so would have made her
vulnerable to large waves. So she kept both hatches closed.
As she slept, her boat bobbed erratically in the waves. To keep from
being thrown around the cabin, Spotz used clothes and gear to wedge
herself on a thin foam mattress. The padding helped, but not much.
“Sleeping was a real problem,” Spotz said. “It took a toll to put out
that much physical effort on very little rest.”
Spotz grew up in Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Her career as an
endurance athlete began when she ran her first marathon at age 18. Later
she cycled across the United States and became the first person to swim
the length of the Allegheny River.
Before leaving for Senegal, her biggest boating experience consisted of a
40-mile practice row on Lake Erie that ended with her boat being pinned
against a cliff by wind and waves. The boat was nearly destroyed. Many
people asked Spotz how she could row across the Atlantic if she could
not even row on Lake Erie.
The answer, she said, is that the biggest danger in ocean rowing besides
hurricanes is coming too close to shore, where the current can
overwhelm the rower and push the boat into the rocks.
“The last day of the trip is always the most dangerous,” Williams said.
It took Spotz two years to plan the trip and to raise the money to pay
for it. Spotz’s parents tried to persuade her not to try such a
dangerous adventure.
“Are you nuts?” Dan Spotz, her father, said when she told him about her
plan. “When she rode a bike across the entire country, she didn’t have
to worry about sharks or pirates.”
Spotz did see sharks. She was splashed by dolphins as big as her boat.
Fish leapt and slapped her in the face, and exhausted birds nestled
beside her as she rowed.
Rather than thinking about how far she had traveled or how many miles
she had left, she tried to notice her surroundings.
“For this journey I really couldn’t think that far in advance because
otherwise it would be overwhelming,” Spotz said. “It allowed me to focus
on what was happening in that moment.”
The Peer Water Exchange (PWX), a project of Blue Planet Network, was
awarded the 2010 Intel Environment Award at The Tech Awards in Santa Clara, California. For the
past ten years, The Tech Awards have identified innovators applying
technology in practical ways to resolve some of the world’s most
challenging issues. This year’s ceremony, in front of 1,500 guests,
honored fifteen laureates selected from more than 1,000 nominations in
five categories. PWX was one of the five category-winners awarded with a
$50,000 cash prize.
Blue
Planet Network is a San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit enabling safe
drinking water projects worldwide. Its mission is to unlock the global
capacity and creativity of individuals, philanthropies, businesses and
expert water organizations to solve the global safe drinking water crisis. Blue Planet Network launched its
patent-pending Peer Water Exchange in 2006. PWX is a combination of
people, process, and technology designed to implement best practices,
build member capacity, fund high potential projects and transparently
share project impact.
The Tech Museum, based in San Jose, Calif., along with Applied Materials
and Santa Clara University, recognized laureates in five categories:
Environment, Economic Development, Education, Equality, and Health.
"The women and men we honor, the people behind the pioneering
innovations that continue to improve our world, have shown us how to
touch millions of lives in meaningful, life-changing ways," Peter
Friess, president of The Tech Museum, said. "In the work of the
laureates, we see the potential and promise of technology to tackle
global problems while lifting the lives of the world's most vulnerable
people."
“We are thrilled to be recognized with the 2010 Intel Environment Award,” said Jin Zidell, Founder and Chairman of Blue Planet
Network. “This honor will be invaluable
in building our impact, as well as connecting Blue Planet Network to a
world of innovative thinkers.”
“This
year’s awards have recognized grassroots community based projects as
effective, modern solutions,” explained Blue Planet Network’s Rajesh
Shah, who pioneered PWX. “Similarly other partners of ours, such as Gram
Vikas and Barefoot College, have won Tech Awards in prior years. PWX
aggregates and connects the hard work of these organizations on the
ground. PWX can support hundreds of partners, showcasing their work and also enabling us to see how
much progress we make collectively.”
One of the largest threats to life on Earth is the reduction in the
quality and quantity of fresh water. Yet solutions are available for as
little as $30 a person. Safe drinking water and the health it brings
enable children to go to school, women to take better care of their
families and start businesses, and communities to focus on economic
development. To date, more than 70 agencies around the world have used
Blue Planet Network’s Peer Water Exchange to peer review, receive
funding, and implement community-based water and sanitation projects.
Nearly $27 million of member water and sanitation projects are
supported, bringing safe drinking water to nearly 700,000 people in
rural areas around the world.
Photos © Charlotte Fiorito Photography
About Blue Planet Network
Blue Planet Network is a San Francisco-based 501(c)3 non-profit
seeking to provide safe drinking water to 200 million people in rural
communities in the developing world. Founded in 2002 by Jin Zidell,
Blue Planet Network's mission is to unlock the global capacity and
creativity of individuals, philanthropies, businesses and expert water
organizations to solve the global safe drinking water crisis. Via its
patent-pending Peer Water Exchange, Blue Planet Network supports nearly
$27 million of member water and sanitation projects, bringing safe
drinking water to 700,000 people. To learn more about Blue
Planet Network or to make a donation, please visit www.blueplanetnetwork.org.
About The Tech Museum
The Tech Museum is a hands-on technology and science museum for people
of all ages and backgrounds. The museum - located in the Capital of
Silicon Valley - is a non-profit learning resource established to engage
people in exploring and experiencing technologies affecting their
lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge, our annual team
design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such
as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, Inc., The Tech
Museum celebrates the spirit of Silicon Valley by encouraging the
development of innovative ideas for a more promising future. For more
information about The Tech Museum, visit www.thetech.org.